:-D
Posted on 05/31/2008 6:13:42 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
(Study of non-athletes finds lack of nutrition)
Nearly two-thirds of girls at a Milwaukee high school had poor bone health, eating problems or menstrual irregularities that could put them at risk for osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease later in life, according to a study by researchers with the Medical College of Wisconsin.
The problems were found in a group of non-athletes at Divine Savior Holy Angels High School, where the condition was also identified two years ago in a group of student athletes.
One of the most surprising findings was that nearly twice as many of the non-athletes (30%) had poor bone health, compared with the athletes. More than 90% of the non-athletes also were getting insufficient calcium.
The finding shows that while overeating and obesity are problems for a significant number of adolescents, at the other end of the spectrum is a group of young girls who have poor nutrition habits, including not eating enough.
"A lot of times we are so focused on obesity that it can play into eating disorders," said Sheila Dugan, an assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. Dugan was not a part of the study.
In 2006, Medical College researchers reported finding varying levels of the female athlete triad among a group of 80 athletes at the high school. The triad is an interrelated cascade of conditions: disordered eating; irregular menstrual cycles; and osteoporosis.
The girls competed in track, cross country, basketball and soccer, and exercised an average of about 1.5 hours five times a week.
The new research, which was presented this week at the American College of Sports Medicine annual meeting, involves 80 non-athletes from the school. Problem under the radar
The study highlights a problem that has gone under the radar screen, said Heidi Prather, an associate professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Washington University School of Medicine.
"Girls are definitely at risk for things that boys aren't," said Prather, who was not a part of the study.
Researchers were surprised to find 65% of the non-athletes had one or more components of the triad, compared with 78% of the athletes.
In fact, more of the non-athletes, 93%, had calcium deficiencies, compared with 74% of the athletes.
And when both groups of girls underwent testing with a machine that scans their bones, 30% of the non-athletes had low bone mineral density, compared with 16% of the athletes.
"I was surprised to see how many girls had abnormal bone mineral density and the toll it was taking on their bones," said lead author Anne Hoch, an associate professor of orthopedic surgery and physical medicine and rehabilitation at the Medical College and director of the Froedtert & Medical College Women's Sports Medicine Program. "It's shocking at (age) 16."
Women establish much of their bone health before they reach their 20s. So if there is a deficit early on, they are much more likely to develop osteoporosis later in life.
Poor bone health is not uncommon in adolescents and young women involved in sports. That's because they often are not consuming as many calories as they are burning, which can lead to menstrual abnormalities. That in turn reduces the production of estrogen, which is needed to build bone mineral density.
Engaging in load-bearing activities can help build bone when adequate calories are consumed.
But because the non-athletes in the study were not regular exercisers, their bones did not benefit from those load-bearing activities. And because they were not eating enough calories, some of them had menstrual abnormalities.
But they also had another problem, Hoch said. Many of them were drinking caffeinated beverages such as soda. Caffeine can interfere with the absorption of calcium. Plus, a child who drinks a lot of soda probably is not drinking much milk.
Some could face vascular trouble
About an equal proportion of athletes (36%) and non-athletes (39%) were not consuming adequate calories.
While that did not constitute an eating disorder such as anorexia, "they are heading in that direction," Hoch said.
"These young women are under great pressure to conform to society's standards of body image," she said. "In an effort to lose weight, they are restricting their caloric intake and adopting unhealthy nutrition habits."
Menstrual abnormalities, such as having no periods or significantly irregular periods, were found in 54% of the athletes and 21% of the non-athletes.
Hoch said the combination of menstrual problems and not eating enough can be damaging to blood vessels and may be setting the girls up for cardiovascular problems later in life.
Last year, research by Hoch involving Milwaukee area women runners in their 20s showed that a chronic state of energy deficit and irregular periods can adversely affect vascular health, although, unlike the bone problems, the effects can be reversed with improved diet or reduced exercise.
Ellen Bartel, president of Divine Savior Holy Angels, said the school plans to disseminate the study's findings to parents. Two years ago, the school held a meeting in the auditorium with students and parents when the findings for its athletes were released.
In recent years, the school has included more healthy choices in its vending machines, such as yogurt, fruit, water and juice, although it still has soda, she said. It also sells 25-cent milk cartons at a loss to encourage more girls to drink it. The school now is considering taking soda out altogether.
Bartel said some students consistently make healthy choices while others only do so on occasion.
Bartel said the school has a responsibility to educate parents and students about the problem, but it can be a battle to get high school kids to adopt healthy eating habits.
"Young people are a tough population to focus on healthy habits because they think they are going to live forever and they always are in a hurry," she said.
The milk at school is half the amount we had when we were a kid.
-—sheesh-—here I thought they were about 80% overweight, 80% with STD’s or 4/5 pregnant-—
I’m a certified personal fitness trainer (as of last Wednesday, thank you, thank you! :-D), and it really upsets me to see and hear these kinds of things. People don’t understand health and nutrition, and the plethora of bad information on the internet isn’t helping. I see people wreck themselves on treadmills because they don’t use them properly, I see people starve themselves to try to look thin, and others who pay no attention to diet at all and think that being obese is okay (heart attacks happen to other people).
I don’t have the solution (except to say hire me! :-D), but it really bothers me. The body is such a marvel of God’s engineering...I hate to see people hurt themselves.
Obviously, the state should just issue us EACH/ALL the right amount of food that they think best. Evidently we are incapable of doing it for ourselves (to their standards). Although, if they did, then there goes the research money to study us.
Speaking as younger guy going into the health field, girls don’t drink milk. But they sure throw back the sodas or diet sodas.
So not only do they not consume calcium, they also drink a lot of carbonated beverages that leach calcium from your bones.
Yeah, the kids are lard buckets (between 25 and 29% of Wisconsin adults are obese). Thing is, the dietary habits of our whole country are pretty questionable.
Yep. My other annoyance is the female fear of “getting big” when lifting weights. All the while not realizing they lack that critical ingredient called testosterone, with which even that guy working 10x harder than they are on the weights is still struggling to add pounds with.
Changing that would help quite a bit with this bone density thing, as well.
Congrats on the personal training certification/job! You’ve definitely got a pretty ideal job as far as working conditions go.
Did you go with ACE or ISSA?
Congrats on getting certified as a personal fitness trainer!
I was seeing a personal trainer 2 - 3 times a week for over a year and see the time and money spent was well worth it!
I’ll never pass for a sweet young thing, but I’m in pretty good shape for a middle aged Mom of 4!
A good personal trainer is a great investment in a healthy lifestyle!
:)
Someone ought to complain the fashion industry that their emphasis on thinness is causing too many medical problems among young females. How about emphasizing that a more full-bodied figure can still be good for you?
Most girls I know (and knew) have had horrible diets from about middle school on. The vast majority of meals consist of a soda and something out of a vending machine. This is especially true of lunch at school. Didn’t matter what their weight was, that was their diet. It will give them hell down the road.
I’ve been on a popular weight loss program now since just before Thanksgiving. I’ve lost 44 pounds. I feel pretty good. I love the program since I eat 90% grocery store food. I’m trying to decide whether to re-evaluate my goal (54 pounds) and go onto maintenance. All my friends and even my husband who is a string bean are telling me that its time. I’ve been on the same plateau now for a couple of weeks and I think that maybe my 60 year old body is telling me that this is where I’m supposed to be. Today I started reading the South Park diet book and it makes a lot of sense in combo with maintenance on this other plan. Just my ramblings on the subject.
Can you elaborate on that? Wrecking as in poor form or exercise abuse (I'm concerned about poor form)?
And congratulations on your accomplishment! I've hired personal trainers off and on and they were a blessing!
:-D
LOL, thanks for that!!!
I had the fear of getting big when I started weight training last year...and guess what? I did. My shoulders (trapeziums?) bulked up considerably, as did my thighs. My dad, who’s written several books on weight training and competes (in his 60’s), was stymied. Kinda funny, but annoying for me.
What do you mean by this?
I don't know how unhealthy it is, but I always thought the lasses that tried to be, not pencils, but pencil leads were less than attractive.
I can tell you from personal experience, I wound up having knee surgery because I put too much stress on my knees when using my treadmill to loss weight.
The incline feature is what really screwed up my knee, put WAY too much stress on it.
Keep in mind, though, the women in your age group look AWFUL when they're thin. Haggard, droopy, older. Keep a little extra on you. You're hubby will like it too. :)
I love my elliptical.
I’m an aging gymnast, so my ankles and knees will react negatively to many things - but not my elliptical.
I work up a good sweat and my joints don’t make me suffer for it when I’m done.
What do you mean? I'm as healthy as a horse
Question for you... is milk alone (or dairy products) a poor solution for the lack of calcium? Wouldn't eating more balanced meals and doing regular weight exercises be a much better choice?
Oh yeah... I remember dating this lady about twenty years ago. Although she looked fantastic... as I got to know more about her... she would eat like a bird. But I used to tease her and call her "Miss Moss." You know, the moss gets all their nutrients from the moisture in the air...
A quarter pounder has more meat on it then she has on her bones
Is this one of the models from South America that died? She looks close.
Don't know, but being that thin probably has taken twenty years off her life.
I could be wrong,,,geez I hate that thought,,,,but, I think if you will research that photo, you will find that it was photoshopped/airbrushed for the effect. I saw a comparison in a magazine recently that showed the original and then this “after”—this photo, and it was obvious that the publicists had been at work. The article was about the actual and perceived shots from the models, how blemishes and “imperfections” disappear with digital imaging and airbrushing.
My daughter is tall and slim—5’ 7” and 115#. She eats more than I can and eats healthy. Some people are fortunate to have good metabolism, so tall and slim is not always unhealthy. She just gave birth last night to a grandson at 9# and 22”. Her husband is 6’ 4” and 200#. I agree that too thin is dangerous, but I also know that some people are not genetically fat. We would all live longer if we didnt pack around so much lard.
Congrats on the new grandson!
No, no you are never wrong, just the other people aren't right :)
That's disturbing. I always use the incline feature on the treadmill so there's less pressure on my back. I figure my knees are going because after 40, stuff just starts wearing out. I've never been even close to overweight so it isn't that.
That’s why I prefer an exercise bike, it’s much easier on the knees, and it’s a lot easier to do sprints.
I do Tabatas (that’s about 8 reps of 20-second full out sprints with 10-second rest intervals). You get more out of doing that for about 5-10 minutes, than if you spend a full hour doing moderate cardio on the bike.
Females have testosterone. It’s produced in the ovaries.
Just nowheres near as much as men.
“Females have testosterone. It’s produced in the ovaries.”
Well, of course they have *some* testosterone. They have other androgens, as well—androstendione and DHEA, to name a few. But that wasn’t the point of my figurative language. Males have so much more testosterone that to worry about bulking up with far more miniscule diets and generally far less effort than you see in males is not a very valid fear.
Exactly! My husband is 6'7", and weighs 178 pounds soaking wet. I have to walk 20 miles a week doing 14 minute miles to get down to 169...and I'm only 5'6".
While some people aren't genetically 'fat', others are not genetically 'thin'. Others manage to hold a middle ground.
---
(Congratulations on the new grand-baby, BTW! :-)
Thanks, this’uns #3.
Unfortunately for that middle ground, middle age slump keeps threatening to expand the middle ground.
I watched Denise Austin exercise all week and I never lost a pound.
Yup, Knee surgery at 47
I can’t answer your question on treadmills specifically but since walking for fitness became a major part of my life (I’ve been walking at least 5 miles a day since 2003), I much prefer the outdoors to an inside treadmill. I even bought one of the very expensive treadmills early on in my exercise program but it soon got pushed in the corner (a giant $2,000 paperweight) because it was not only very boring but hell on my knees to use it. Yet I have no issue walking for hours and hours on rigorous trails in the state parks in my area up and down steep hills.
LOL!
People tend to use the treadmill without strengthening their leg muscles first (adductors, abductors, hamstrings, quadriceps). The result of running or jogging on a treadmill (or outside, for that matter) without making sure you are balanced is pulled or torn muscles and bad knees. People also tend to get on the thing without warming up first, and they go all out for twenty or thirty minutes when they are not ready for that. Then they hop off and go about their merry way without a cool down. Not good ideas.
Went with ACE and love it!!
Milk is good for calcium (keep it skim!), but balance is the key. The USDA recommends three cups of milk a day, but there are folks who are lactose intolerant. You can get calcium from salmon with bones, a calcium supplement, other dairy products. And for building strong bones, nothing beats walking or jogging (but don’t jog or run without balancing your legs muslces, first!). Balance is the key in everything dietary. For good suggestions, I really recommend checking out the My Pyramid plan. http://www.mypyramid.com
Walking or jogging outside gives you a much better work out than a treadmill, yep.
Stuff doesn’t have to wear out. Look at Jack Lalane!
:-D
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